Equity and Belonging
Activities & Explorations
Equity Club
Equity Club strives to provide students with a safe and educational space to discuss inequities surrounding gender, race, sexuality, and more. We seek to create a more inclusive Derryfield community by fostering an increasingly welcoming and diverse culture within our space. We hold a safe, non-judgmental space where students can come to discuss social inequities in our lives and in the greater community. We strive to learn about things we can do in our everyday lives to fight for social justice, and we will work throughout the year to design and host our annual Equity conference.
Model UN
In Model UN, students step into the roles of ambassadors from UN member states to prepare and draft resolutions on the organization’s vast agenda. Student delegates in Model UN prepare draft resolutions, plot strategies, negotiate with supporters and adversaries, resolve conflicts, and follow the UN’s rules of procedure – all in the interest of mobilizing international cooperation to resolve problems that affect countries all over the world.
Asian Culture Club
Asian Culture Club aims to enrich students’ cultural experiences in Derryfield. Moreover, it offers opportunities for Asian students to share their culture with the community and plan traditional activities from their cultures.
GLOW
GLOW stands for “Gay, Lesbian Or Whatever!” and we are an LGBTQ+ affinity group. Our goal is to provide a space where all students can share experiences, ask questions, and feel comfortable exploring their sexuality and gender identity without fear of judgment. In previous years, GLOW has been listed as a club, however this year we have officially become an affinity group. This ensures more confidentiality for those who attend meetings and allows us more freedom as to when we meet. GLOW is open to everyone and anyone who may be interested in queer topics as we believe everyone deserves to feel comfortable and confident in their identity and when learning about others’.
Paper Airplanes Tutoring
At the Derryfield chapter of Paper Airplanes, we seek to form meaningful relationships with those around the globe that we otherwise might not have had the opportunity to connect with. Our club fosters a deep cultural appreciation while providing stable educational opportunities to conflict-affected high school students, and our work helps to expand the future opportunities of our students by providing them with a strong foundation in the English language.
We Deliver Periods
We Deliver Periods (WPD) aims to educate the Derryfield community about the severity of the issue of period poverty in homeless women, and to attempt to combat these issues locally in the Manchester community. We want to keep this topic de-stigmatized and help people who have less access to these products in the greater area.
Women in STEAM
Women in STEAM is a club that strives to understand the difficulties women face in male-dominated fields as well as to get a broader sense of STEM careers available through interviewing women in these fields. We hope to encourage women into these fields if they find a speaker’s career interesting. We want to hear many different perspectives and advice from them. We often hear from guest speakers and interview women in the STEM field and hear about many jobs and perspectives throughout the year
Multicultural Student Union
The Multicultural Student Union (MSU) is a student-driven initiative that grew out of spirited faculty-student discussions held over the summer on the issues of racial justice, equity, and inclusion. “Several students wanted a safe space for people of color, as well as those interested in understanding and exploring cultural diversity, to talk about issues of concern as well as to celebrate cultural diversity” said Jenny Boesch who with Laurie Byron serves as a faculty advisor to the group.
Breakthrough Manchester
Breakthrough Manchester is housed on Derryfield’s campus and is the second oldest of the 24 Breakthrough program sites in the country. Our Breakthrough students are all Manchester area residents and the program currently serves 169 students, 73% of whom identify as students of color. In 2016, we partnered with Southern New Hampshire University, in an effort to meaningfully expand this academic enrichment program beyond the middle school years, all the way through grade 12. On Derryfield’s campus, middle school students have their summer and school year educational experiences, while SNHU supports them through high school and the college enrollment process.
Tony Bonjorno
Tony Bonjorno
- Job Title:
- GLOW Advisor, Instrumental Music Teacher, and Spanish Teacher
- Email:
- tbonjorno@derryfield.org
In addition to teaching general music, Tony leads the MS and US string ensembles, is the music director for our school musicals when he is not playing violin in the pit orchestra, and teaches a songwriting elective. He is the advisor to the GLOW Club. Prior to joining the DS faculty, Tony taught at the Surry Village Charter School and the Micro Academy Charter School, and taught private voice and violin lessons. In addition to teaching, Tony writes, plays, and records his own music and is very involved in youth and adult theater.
